Birth of the New Empire: The Attack
by Fleetlord Atvar
Summary: Approximately one year before what would have been the Battle of Yavin, the Universal Union of the Combine, now secure on Earth, set their gaze to the stars for more worlds to conquer. Probes have sent back images of a galaxy far away filled with new planets to bring into the Union. However, the Empire will not go down as easily as the Combine hoped.
1. First Contact

**Author's Note:**

Hello there, reader, and welcome to this fan fiction I decided to write. First of all everything I mention here, character names, objects, ship names/types and planets are all Star Wars canon. I spent a lot of time on Wookieepedia to try and make this Fanfic as accurate as possible to SW. The only things I'll create are minor character names and most of the Combine's equipment. I'll include notes at the end of each chapter to explain more obscure elements in the chapter. Now, without further ado, here goes.

**Imperial Space Station 4721-XI**

**Allied Tion Sector**

Space. A void filled with thousands of stars and hundreds of planets. It never ceased to impress Commander Victor Muro. As a child growing up on Corellia, he frequently spent the evenings of his youth gazing up at the stars and dreaming of seeing the Galaxy.

Well, he somewhat accomplished that. He signed up in the Imperial Navy for adventures in his youth, and he did experience quite a few. But his rapid rank advancement brought new responsibilities.

And so here he was, on the edge of the Outer Rim supervising trade routes through the Tion Cluster. It was an important job seeing as how this was one of the Empire's most important supply bases, but still, Commander Muro yearned to travel again.

"Sir?" A voice asked from behind Muro, disturbing him from his thoughts. "Sir, the Mynock Runner has just docked with us, should we begin scanning her cargo?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, do it, Lieutenant." Muro said, with a clear disinterest. He kept his gaze on the stars outside the viewport, and began to think. What if there were worlds beyond the Rim? What if there were other Empires out there? What if…..

"Uh, sir, we have a ship incoming, looks Capital-Class."

"What?" Muro asked as he began walking over to the young Ensign at his terminal.

"Wait, there's a another one!" the Ensign yelled, pointing at the increasing number of dots on his screen approaching the Station. "3 more behind them!"

"Oh….no" Muro, muttered, eyes wide in fear. He ran back to the helm and quickly turned the microphone on.

"All crew members get to your battle stations, multiple unidentified Captial-Class vessels inbound!"

"Praiers, send out a Code Black distress signal, now!" Muro screamed. This station was barely able to fend off pirate attacks, let alone several capital-class vessels. Muro stared out the viewport in terror as the blips on the screen got closer. Suddenly, a large warship dropped out of hyperspace. Then another. More and more starships began coming in. Muro noticed the front ship had a large cannon mounted on the front, that looked to be charging up. "BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

Commander Victor Muro saw the cannon fire. It would be the last thing he would ever see.

**Aboard the CSS Bahamut**

**Allied Tion Sector**

"Target destroyed, sir"

"Excellent" Nikolai Watson said, smiling as he looked at the remains of that pathetic station. "Set up a secure channel with Administrator Breen, I want to tell him of our developments".

"Yes, sir" Officer Harrison responded, tuning the signal array. "The signal might be a bit weak, sir"

"Don't worry, Harrison, this will do" Watson responded, as the screen behind him slowly came into focus, with an elderly man seated in chair.

"Administrator, we have arrived in Skyriver, and successfully destroyed a supply station belonging to this "Empire"."

"Good" Breen responded, "I assume this "barrier" you reported has been dealt with then?"

"Of course it has, sir" Watson stated. _Though it did take nearly half the fleet's firepower, _he thought to himself. It was strange though, that there was an invisible force blocking off this galaxy (referred to as "Skyriver"), preventing ships from entering or leaving. But it didn't matter now.

"Our Benefactors are extremely pleased, Commander" Breen continued "I advise you continue with our plans as soon as possible."

"At once, sir" Watson responded, as he turned the screen off. He sighed. He watched the footage the probes sent back from the expedition to this place a year ago (sent out after the Universal Union absorbed Earth into its empire). The Advisors offered Breen control of this far-away galaxy, if he could take it for the Combine. That power-hungry egomaniac of course committed a large portion of the Transhuman Arms to an invasion force, and the Overworld kindly provided the vessels to carry it there.

And Watson had to topple a gigantic Empire with far more advanced technology then the Combine could ever dream of.

Watson sighed again. "Alright" he said to the bridge crew "let's get underway".

**Council Chamber, Imperial Palace**

**Coruscant**

Grand Admiral Octavian Grant nervously strummed his fingers against the large round table in the middle of the chamber. He was always extremely nervous around Emperor Palpatine, knowing that the man could kill him with little effort if he said or did something wrong in his presence. Across from him sat Grand Admirals Miltin Takel and Rufaan Tigellinus. The Emperor's pet, Wilhuff Tarkin, sat right beside Palpatine's throne, as always. At least Lord Vader would not be present.

Suddenly, the doors at the end of the chamber opened. Everyone rose; they always felt the presence of Palpatine. Like a wind, a feeling of fear and dread swept over them all as he walked to his throne, flanked by two Royal Guards.

"Sit" he commanded. All obeyed.

"Now," he said in his raspy voice "who would like to tell me about the events in the Tion Cluster?"

As always, Tarkin spoke up first "Your Excellency, 2 days ago we received a distress call from the _Warlord, _which I have here".

Tarkin took out a small holoprojector from his pocket and placed it in the center of the table. A very static-filled, garbled hologram of an officer appeared

"This is Captain…Capital-Class vessels…unknown orgin…..Rhen Var…..compromised…..Code Black…..shields down… ARGH!"

"That was the end of the transmission" Tarkin calmly stated, as he put the holoprojector back in his pocket "we haven't received any contact from the Tion Cluster since then." Palpatine folded his hands together. "The Allied Tion Sector is an important supply base for our military, as you all know" he said, surveying all of the officers, who were squirming uncomfortably (except for Tarkin, of course).

"Your Excellency, I have a suggestion" Tigellinus said, "I have drawn up plans to cut off this mysterious fleet over Arkanis with my own. They will not get through."

"And what if they do?" Palpatine asked, sounding more amused than curious. "If they do your Highness, Moff Julstan's forces will engage them on the surface of Geonosis, which we estimate to be their next target in their invasion, due to the path they've been taking." Tigellinus confidently replied.

Palpatine thought for a moment. Then he waved his hand "Very well, Admiral, but if this plan of yours fails, you will face severe punishment."

"It will not fail" Tigellinus said, slightly less confident than before.

"Then it is settled" Palpatine declared "You are all dismissed".

With that he rose up, and left the room, leaving the Admirals and Moffs to themselves.

**Author's Note:**

Alright, where to start in this one? Well, first of all, the Tion Cluster is on the edge of the Outer Rim, and is composed of the Tion Hegemony, Cronese Mandate and Allied Tion Sectors. The former two are lawless places, however, the Allied Tion Sector is an important Imperial supply base for the Military, and is regularly patrolled by the Victor-Class Destroyer _Warlord_.

Nikolai Watson comes from an old Gmod save I made a year ago. He was a high-ranking Combine officer that was the target of an Imperial assault team, in order to obtain detail on Combine military movements. The name itself came from a Watch Dogs addon for Gmod that randomly generated names, as well as bios. Watson was the name that came up for the after mentioned Officer, so I used that.

The Bahamut is actually a reference to a well-made map that was used on a RP server my friend ran on Gmod. The description, as you'll soon discover, matches that ship as well.

The "barrier" mentioned is a "hyperspace disturbance field" around the Galaxy, supposedly left there by Celestials, and it's the thing that prevents ships from leaving the Galaxy (dubbed Skyriver here)


	2. Kicking in the Door

**Author's Note:**

I can't believe I forgot this in the first chapter, so;

**Disclaimer: I do not own Disney/Lucasfilm or Valve**

Alright, now with that out of the way, on with the chapter.

**Aboard the ISD Avatar**

**Arkanis Orbit**

_It will not fail,_ Rufaan Tigellinus repeated as he walked onto the bridge of his flagship. Still, he was nervous. These mysterious invaders had managed to conquer an entire sector of the Empire, and managed to let nothing but a garbled hologram get back to High Command. No one even knew what kind of capabilities they possessed, or how big the invading force was.

_None of that matters, nothing can pass by a fleet of Star Destroyers this large _he assured himself. After all, he had 50 Star Destroyers surrounding Arkanis, ready to fire, but…..

"Sir, 25 Capital-Class ships have just dropped out of hyperspace on the far side of the planet" reported a voice from the pit on the Admiral's left "And, they're trying to hail us on the comms, sir."

Tigellinus was surprised. He hadn't actually expected these aggressors to try and contact him. Needless to say, he was intrigued. "Put them through".

The Admiral looked down on a small screen in his console at the front of the bridge. As the static cleared, he was shocked to see a light-skinned, brown-haired human in military uniform. This man wore a dark blue suit with rank indicator that looked to be similar to the Empire's on the right of suit, and strange yellow circle encompassed by two yellow spikes on the left.

"Greetings, sir, I am Admiral Nikolai Watson of the Universal Union of the Combine" the man firmly stated.

_He speaks Basic? _Tigellinus asked himself in amazement, before coming to his senses. "Er, Admiral Watson, you have committed several acts of war against the Galactic Empire. I demand you return the Tion Cluster to us and return to….your….." Tigellinus trailed off as he noticed something walking up behind Watson. As it slowly got closer, the Imperial Admiral gasped in horror. What he saw was a human. But this human possessed no muscle or fat whatsoever on his body. He….it had a strange metal visor covering its eyes, and had no hands to speak of, only metal hooks. In one of these hooks it carried some kind of notebook. Watson took it without even glancing at this hideous abomination.

"Well, if you're not going to finish your sentence, sir," Watson casually stated "I demand you surrender to us now. I assure you that you all will be treated well in our captivity if you do so. If you refuse, however, your fleet will be destroyed, and the survivors will be…changed" he said, motioning to the creature patiently standing behind him.

Tigellinus stiffened up. "The Empire will not bow down to barbarians like you" he retorted.

Watson sighed. "Very well, all vessels, commence the attack" he ordered.

For a moment, Tigellinus wondered why his opponent decided to broadcast his orders right in front of him, but suddenly, messages from a large majority of his vessels came blaring over the comms.

"This is the Avarice, they breached the hull, we're…."

"Tyranny has sustained a massive structural collapse…."

"Mayday, mayday! The Vector is going down, I repeat, the Vector…..

The Grand Admiral felt like he was about to faint. But, he pointed out at Watson, smirking like an idiot on the screen.

"You…. how are you doing this?!" Tingellinus demanded, trying to sound threating as his fleet fell apart.

Watson chuckled. "Oh, my good friend" he replied "a good magician never reveals his tricks."

With that, the screen went black.

"Sir, the enemy fleet is about to get a lock on us!" one of the bridge technicans screamed "What are your orders?!"

"Retreat!" Tingellinus yelled, waving his arms around "All surviving vessels retreat to Rally Point Theta, now!"

"Coordinates locked, and firing….now!"

And with that, Tingellinus's mighty fleet fled.

**Aboard the CSS Bahamut**

**Arkanis Orbit**

_Well, that went better than expected,_ Watson thought, as the remains of the Imperial fleet sped away into hyperspace. "Damage report?" he asked.

"_Minos_ has sustained minor damage, but other than that, nothing, sir" reported Harrison.

Watson couldn't help but smile. Perhaps he was mistaken in his worries before. After all, the Empire supposedly having superior technology greatly benefited the Combine in this skirmish. Their vessel's shields were designed to withstand laser fire, but not shells, which the Combine's ships had been using. The fleet was thus torn to shreds.

Watson leaned forward and pressed a small button on the console in front of him. "General Pierce, is the ground invasion force ready?" he asked.

"Affirmative, sir. We await your command." came the reply.

"Excellent" Watson said, more to himself then Pierce. "Crew, set course for our next target".

**Imperial Command Base "Stygian Prime"**

**Geonosis Surface**

"He…did…what?!" Moff Julstan yelled, slamming his fist into the console in front of him.

"Sir, Grand Admiral Tingellinus' fleet has retreated from Arkanis and is currently regrouping over Naboo" came the frightened reply from the console.

Julstan turned around and looked at his aide, like he was about to rip the man's head off. "Put all garrisons on high-alert, these invaders will be stopped here. We will not give a single centimeter to them!" he roared.

"At once, sir!" the aide responded, running out of the room in fear. Julstan looked back at his console "So help me, I will kill that spinless Barve!" he yelled, spit flying from his mouth. "I will end this here".

The Moff turned, and stormed out of the room.

**Imperial Garrison 29-BY**

**Geonosis Surface**

"How the hell does this sand keep managing to get in my boots?"

"Well, you're a long way from Dantooine, private. Get used to it" a voice replied.

Private Versio grumbled, putting his boot back on. He would have preferred to be back home, farming, rather than sitting in a trench with a hundred other men waiting to engage some force no one had even heard of before, on a wasteland like this. He looked up at the old CIS Core Ship looming over them, and hoped he would't die alongside a bunch of damn oversized insects. Speaking of which, one of them was walking down the trench line to Versio's sergeant, Miko Doim. The Geonosian was carrying one of those sonic rifles, and began speaking in that rapid clicking language they somehow came up with.

"Woah, slow down, and speak in plain Basic, please" Doim asked.

Versio was staring at his weapon, trying to make sure it wouldn't get jammed from all this sand, when he felt someone nudge him in the shoulder.

"Hey, Versio" the voice said "bet ya twenty Credits that those hostiles are going to land here first."

Versio smirked "You're on, Vulen" he said, giving his friend a playful shove. Sergeant Doim finished his conversation with the Geonosian, and cleared his throat loud enough for the entire trench to here. "Alright, men, we got a sandstorm coming in, so visors down".

Versio tapped a small switch on the side of his helmet to lower the visor. He laughed a little inside. _Well, the Empire can't give us any body armor to speak of, but at least they were generous enough to give us something to shield our eyes with _he thought. He peeked over the trench, and sure enough, there was a gigantic wall of sand blowing across the plain, and over the wrecks of Separatist starships.

In only took a couple of minutes for the storm to completely overtake the trench. A voice farther down the line shouted over the storm "We just lost communication with command, sir!" Sergeant Doim swore. "It doesn't matter, we're holding here!" he yelled.

Versio shut his eyes, trying to mentally drown out the sound of the storm. But as he was doing that, he heard something. It was faint at first, but Versio could clearly hear. It kind of sounded like a rubber ball being dribbled against pavement, but very slowly, and with a very deep tone. Versio nudged Vulen, who was leaning against an E-Web "Malon, do you hear something?" he asked. Vulen looked over at Versio. "Yeah, I hear sand rushing past my ears at 30 miles an hour, why, did you go deaf or something?" he said, grunting. Versio shrugged. "I don't know" he responded "I just thought I heard….wait a minute." He looked over the edge of the trench. He could have sworn he heard footsteps, but he couldn't see anything through all this damn sand. Versio thought for a moment, then lifted his E-11 up to the edge, and fired into the dust. Everyone in the trench heard a scream, but it sounded more like a dying droid then a human being, it was like a piercing shriek.

A robotic voice in the gloom suddenly yelled out "Contact, weapons free!"

Thousands of bullets came rocketing toward the Imperials in the trench. Versio slammed his head into the dirt, and slipped behind cover. He vaguely heard someone (probably Sergeant Doim) yell out "Don't give these Barves an inch! Hold firm, men!" Versio widely looked around the line. He heard the screams of Imperials, the shrieks from the hostiles, and the exchange of blaster fire with the strange projectiles. Finally, he saw Vulen, sitting motionless against his E-Web. "Malon! Are you alright?!" Versio called. Vulen didn't move. _Oh, no. No..no….no _Versio thought. In a frenzy, he jumped up and tried to run over to his friend. He suddenly felt an enormous amount of pain in his leg, and abdomen. Private Versio fell, and he did not get back up.

Approximately ten minutes later everyone in the trench was dead. An Overwatch soldier stepped into the trench and surveyed the corpses. "Defensive line Delta terminated. Proceeding to main objective" he said into his radio. Then he waved to the troops behind him and walked across the trench to the other side. The Combine Army was once again on the march.

**Author's Note:**

It's important to note that the Imperial troops defending the trench are NOT Stormtroopers. They're the regular Imperial Army, which is used primarily for defending captured worlds and acquiring new worlds for the Empire. I think that it's kind of bizarre they don't appear more in Star Wars EU honestly.

An E-Web is essentially a machine gun emplacement, just using lasers instead of, well, bullets.

Nothing much more to say about this chapter then that you don't already know, I guess.


End file.
